Gary Paulsen's The River

  A brave and enchanting tale, The River exercises the mind and spirit for optimism and hope.  Paulsen continue's Brian's story: a young boy who was trapped in the woods for fifty-two days with nothing but a hatchet.  He survives, but he will never forget his experiences in mastering the wilderness.  So it isn't a surprise when three men show up at Brian's door asking him to relive the event.
   At first, Brian cannot believe what he is hearing- but then it starts to make sense.  He must recount the events for future boys and girls if they were ever stuck in the woods.  So Derek, the lead companion, encourages Brian's mom and dad to let him go on another expedition.  They will travel to a nearby lake, all new surroundings, and Brian would show Derek how to survive.
   When the plane lands, Brian makes the decision to leave all camping equipment on board- if Derek was going to learn, he needed to know the hard way.  Without too much hesitation, Derek agreed.  The sights and sounds quickly returned, and Brian refocused into survival mode.
  Though the first couple days went smoothly, it quickly reversed with a bolt; Derek had gone into a coma due to a lightning strike.  Now, Brian had to think quickly for the survival of his companion.
   The theme I immediately pick up on is Brian's continued optimism.  From his agreement to revisit the wilderness, to building a raft and traveling one hundred miles downstream, Brian knew what he had to do.  At one point he mentioned, "It had only been forty-right hours since Derek had been asleep, but it became instinctive to check his heart rate and pulse." (approx 110).  He never gave up- and the fact that he could have said no to going back, he could have brought the gear, he could have stayed by the lake. But, he was optimistic- and that's what drove him through his weariness, fog, and hallucinations.
   Paulsen's language is very easy to read and follow.  A mere 132 pages would be a couple of hours for a teenager to accomplish.  The chapters are designed to flow, like a river- one into the next.  He doesn't want you to put the book down, and frankly, the reader doesn't want to either.  Dialogue is limited to show Brian's reliance on himself, and how one must rely on themselves in the wilderness.
    I think this is a great book to use in conjunction with My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George.  Sam Gribley is a young, fifteen year old boy, that gives up city life to life in the Catskills with nothing but a knife.  He manages for nearly fifteen months before his family retrieves him.  I would live to use Hatchet and The River as a series set to read with My Side of the Mountain.  Two groups can be divided; half the class reads Hatchet, half reads River, and then the whole class reads My Side.  This way, students can draw conclusions as well as comparisons on how they two young boys made it through in New York.

  This is a gender-neutral novel that is also timeless.  I feel that even though it was written in 1991, twenty-one years ago, it very much can be accepted by classes today.  Brian is very real, and very relatable to students.  They admire his strength and courage to persevere through the river and bring a man back to life.  Chance- this word was said a lot- and I think that Brian exemplifies how chance (and luck) is part of life.